Nuclear Midnight Read Free Page B

official sounding baritone voice spoke.
    ‘Attention, please! Russia has launched a large number of medium range intercontinental nuclear missiles! It is believed they will detonate over Britain in the next ten minutes. Please leave the streets immediately and seek shelter in the nearest building. If you are in a car, stop where you are and enter the nearest brick or concrete structure. The basement of any house or building is the safest. Please seek shelter immediately - this is not a hoax. Do not leave your shelter till the authorities tell you to do so. I repeat: this is not a hoax. Seek shelter immed…’
    As the broadcast continued the voice began to falter and crack. It mispronounced words and stumbled over phrases, then in mid-sentence the radio went dead. For an instant Alex saw Jason's confused features, then everything turned into a chalky brilliance, as if a dozen suns had suddenly exploded around him. He felt a blistering heat on his face and instinctively dived under the dashboard. The car crashed into the large removal van they had been following. The impact flung both brothers forward, then back as their seat belts restrained them; then forward and back again as the car behind careered into the boot. The front windscreen showered over them, then the back one immediately after. And still the heat remained. A searing heat that lasted for many seconds and forced Alex, already cut and bleeding, to squirm further under the dashboard for protection. There he waited, still held by the seat belt, but with his back exposed and burning, until his shirt felt as if it would explode into flame and shrivel him up. But, as quickly as it had come, it was gone. Alex was left severely winded, breathing painfully, covered in a lather of sweat. He gripped the dashboard and tried to pull his head up. A dreadful pain seemed to radiate from his neck, making him gasp and slump forward again. He could hear Jason's uneven, heavy breathing above the screams and shouts from outside. Finally, gaining some control over his voice, he croaked, ‘JASON!’
    The rhythm of his brother’s breathing continued, but there was no response.
    Ignoring the intense pain in his neck, Alex twisted his head around.
    ‘JASON!’ he screamed again, with rising hysteria, as he saw his huge bulk lying over the steering wheel. His head was caught awkwardly between the spokes and his arms dangled uselessly down each side of the wheel. A huge gash above his left eye almost concealed his face under a multitude of coursing red lines. Some of the blood ran off his nose, while other lines converged on his open mouth and streamed off his upper teeth and onto the spokes of the wheel. Only Jason's sharp, irregular breathing convinced Alex that his brother was still alive.
    Then a shuddering, deafening roar drowned out everything. The remaining windows blew out, the car rocked violently. Alex could barely hear his own screaming above the blastwave. He put his hands over his ears, sobbing and yelling uncontrollably. When the noise finally died away and the ringing in his ears had lessened, he tried again to sit upright. Lifting his head with his right hand and levering himself up from the dashboard with his left, he slowly eased himself back. A surge of pain shot up his neck and he flinched with a sharp stabbing pain in his ribs. His breath started coming in short painful bursts and his head began to swim. He turned towards Jason and began to reach over to him with his right hand, but the effort seemed to require a strength he did not possess. His vision blurred, his hand seemed to creep forward as if time had slowed to a trickle. Then the image of his beloved brother faded into white. His head sank forward again and he lost consciousness.
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 2
     
     
    The fusion reaction was over within a millisecond. It liberated vast quantities of radiation, heating the surrounding atmosphere to temperatures approaching the surface of the sun. This created